Amy Reeves’ emotion-filled Australian Idol performance landed her in the coveted top three of the music contest — and it was tears all round as she closed out her song.
Her rendition of the Jackson 5’s I’ll Be There was fuelled by the arrival in Sydney of her family, who had made the journey from the remote West Australian town of Broome to support her.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Amy Reeves performs I’ll Be There on Australian Idol.
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The 25-year-old singer was moved to tears by the end of the song, having kept her emotions in check while delivering a powerful rendition of the classic ballad.
“I had to avoid eye contact with my family because I hadn’t seen them all properly yet and I was going to cry,” she tells 7NEWS.com.au of the moment.
Amy says her sister had collected their relatives and taken everyone to Rooty Hill in Sydney, where Idol is filmed.
“I just had to avert my eyes from that section (of the audience),” Amy laughs.
However, there was no avoiding her mother, who producers had moved to a special spot where she was visible to the aspiring star.
“Mum sat right behind the other contestants so she was right there in front of my face,” Amy recalls.
“She was really emotional and it moved me.”
Amy’s version of the 1970 hit song was also clearly emotional for her mother, who was seen wiping away tears with a tissue.
“As soon as I got on that stage I just had to look down at my feet, because if I looked at her I knew I was going to cry,” Amy says.
“It was really, really hard for me.
“I was holding on for dear life. I wanted to cry as soon as I got on that stage.”
Amy gushed that it “meant the world” to have her friends and family travel from Broome to be in the audience.
“They all have to take time off work and it just means so much to me,” she says.
“Broome is a long way away from Sydney and they’ve given up their money to come over here and it’s amazing, I couldn’t be happier.”
Amy says she was singing before she was speaking, always having had music as part of her life.
“I first performed at age four on stage and it just came to me naturally,” she says.
After a stint on The Voice in 2018, Amy had no intention of auditioning for Idol — until she learned that Marcia Hines would be one of the judges.
It turns out Amy met Marcia when she was 10 years old, backstage at the production of the stage musical Hair, in which Marcia was starring at the time.
“My dad worked as a lighting guy on Hair and we met at a reunion in Sydney when I was 10 years old,” she says.
“It was insane.”
That connection brought her to the audition, where she performed Aretha Franklin’s (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman.
Her rendition was met with silence from the stunned judges after she finished the final lyric.
“I was s****** myself,” Amy recalls.
“They were not saying anything, and I thought to myself that I’d either nailed it or cooked it.
“I blacked out and forgot the actual performance.”
With her natural talent and support from the three judges, Reeves has made it all the way to the Idol grand finale.
Australian Idol continues on Sunday at 7pm AEST on Channel 7 and 7plus.
The top three — Amy, Dylan and Denvah — will perform, as will some of the biggest names in Aussie music — including Marcia Hines, Idol legend Guy Sebastian, Sam Fisher, Delta Goodrem, Morgan Evans and Conrad Sewell.
The winner will be revealed during the Grand Finale on Monday 7.30pm on Channel 7 and 7plus.
